Lost and Found
by alienyouthct
Summary: After displacing the yahg and becoming the new Shadow Broker, Liara T'Soni begins taking stock of what she's inherited… and discovers that Earth has been part of the galactic community longer than they've known.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Lost and Found  
Author: JoeHundredaire  
Rating: R/FR18.  
Disclaimer: BioWare is the owner of the _Mass Effect_ universe, the books and other off-shoot products, and all related characters and concepts. Not entirely sure how ownership and rights of the entire _Terminator_ franchise fits together, what with the movies and TV show and comics and all, or who owns it. Not me, though. Not mine, don't sue, et cetera and so forth.  
Summary: After displacing the yahg and becoming the new Shadow Broker, Liara T'Soni begins taking stock of what she's inherited… and discovers that Earth has been part of the galactic community longer than they've known.  
Joe's Note: Alexis has been after me to do _Mass Effect_ fanfiction since the game came out. I said no because I hadn't played it. Then _Mass Effect 2_ came out… and she wanted more fanfiction. Still said no. Then she bought me an Xbox 360, _Mass Effect_ and _Mass Effect 2_, and enough points to get all the DLC, and told me to STFU. So now here's that fanfic I promised her she'd get when I eventually got an Xbox. The character's looks, class, and personality are based off her game play. Yes, I know that girls aren't allowed to be lesbian anymore in the sequel, thank you very much homophobic EA. Still. Work with me here.

* * *

"Huh. You know, for my first mission, I think that went really well even if I didn't get to do a whole lot. What do you think?"

Ignoring the chirpy voice of Yeoman Kelly Chambers, Alexis Shepard - former Systems Alliance commander, first human Spectre, and all-purpose savior of humanity and helper of the downtrodden - dropped the foot from the UT-47 Kodiak to the deck of the _Normandy_ and yanked her helmet off, hurling it across the landing bay as she stalked away. After the events of the last few days, the last thing she wanted to deal with was the perpetually perky redhead. Fuck, the last thing she wanted to deal with were people in general. Thankfully her companion understood that, following along silently as they made their way into the elevator. When the doors slid open, the pair entered in silence and Alexis deftly manipulated the holographic interface to send the car climbing towards Deck One. "Ugh. What a fucking mess."

Long, slim fingers ran through her hair slowly, removing the pins she used to keep it in place beneath her helmet and allowing it to tumble down her back in a cascade of blonde, black, and red. "I hate to say I told you so, Nee-san, but you knew what she was like last time you saw her. Whatever's happened to her in the last two years has changed her. And evidently whoever the new Liara T'Soni is, she's not as compatible with you as the old one was. The sooner you realize that, the happier you'll be."

Alexis let out a grunt at that, letting Kasumi Goto use her talented fingers to comb out the tangles in her waist length hair. "It felt like she was. And she didn't seem so incompatible when she was sticking her tongue down my throat and saying we'd figure out a way. Then she turns around and dives right into her new floating toy and kicks me out so I won't distract her. I guess that was when it really hit me. She doesn't want to fix our relationship now, or probably ever. She's just tossing me crumbs to make sure I don't leave in case she changes her mind. I'm her backup plan. And you know what? I deserve better than that. I'm just pissed that… I'm a Spectre. Before that, I was N7 and a Systems Alliance commander. How the hell did I end up wrapped around some asari teenager's little finger?"

"It says you have horrible taste in women and need to talk to Miranda about getting a membership of your own on iPartner before I do my sisterly duty and start trying to set you up with people. Because I'll probably do a horrible job of it, seeing as how I can't figure out what you saw in Liara in the first place." Finished with Alexis's hair, Kasumi moved to lean against the wall beside the blonde. "Let's see… we need something catchy, but simple and descriptive. What do you think of 'BuxomBioticSR2'?"

"What do you think of 'BioticButcherSR2'? That was one of my favorites after Torfan and it would probably scare all the delicate little flowers away." Alexis turned, placing her back to the wall so she was standing shoulder to shoulder with the diminutive Japanese woman. "I mean, the last thing I need is a woman who freaks out the first time I go racing off into the unknown on a suicide mission to save the entire galaxy."

Nodding in agreement, Kasumi thought for a moment before snapping her fingers. "We'd have to check, though. You never know, Jack might have already registered under that name." The thought of the irritable convict signing up for a dating service made both break into loud laughter, Kasumi calming herself first and reaching behind her back. When her hand reappeared, it was holding a gun that Alexis knew was definitely not something from the _Normandy_'s armory. "Well in the mean time, would a new gun make you feel better, Nee-san? I know how much you love guns…"

Alexis let out a snort at Kasumi's cajoling tone, taking the heavy pistol from the Japanese woman and examining it closely. While it wasn't something from the ship's armory, she did recognize the make and model from her recent extranet wanderings: an Armali Council M-7 Valkyrie. Unlike the harder and more angular designs of human, turian, and krogan made firearms, weapons produced by the asari corporation tended to look smoother and more organic, the Valkyrie's body in particular bearing a resemblance to the tendrils on the back of an asari's head. Considering it hadn't come from anyone on the ship and she hadn't seen any of the Shadow Broker's agents using one - not that she'd been looking too closely at the people trying to kill her - there was only one possible owner that came to mind. Or rather now, she supposed, one possible former owner. "…is this..?"

"Yup. For an information broker, she's surprisingly unobservant." Shaking her head in resigned amusement at her friend's perpetually sticky fingers, Alexis pulled free her own M-5 Phalanx and handed it to Kasumi, holstering her new Valkyrie now that she had room. She'd have to drop it off with Jacob later to get it upgraded to a level on par with her Phalanx: mass effect generator optimization, computer improvements, and a new aiming module. "For me? Aww. Thank you. Now I have a state of the art weapon to tear apart when Legion and I try to bring our plasma pistol idea to life. And then I'll think of you every time I kill something with high speed plasma-creating superconductors."

Now there was a cheerful thought. Shaking her head in amusement, Alexis waited for the elevator door to open and then used a hand on Kasumi's back to guide her friend out and into the small area outside the Loft's doors. "So, do you want to put in my security code or should I?"

Kasumi looked up at Alexis with wide, innocent brown eyes. "Whatever would make you think that I know the code to your quarters, Nee-san?"

"…the fact that I've caught you in them uninvited?"

"Oh. Right. That time when you were bringing Kelly up here for 'dinner' and you two caught me coming out of the shower and she asked if we were a couple and had invited her over for a threesome." Kasumi shuddered as she moved to punch the access code into the keypad. "Nothing against you, Nee-san, but I'm not into incest."

The doors slid open and Kasumi slipped between them, Alexis laughing as she followed along behind the diminutive thief. "Fine by me. I prefer my girlfriends a bit curvier than you are. And bluer."

Looking back over her shoulder, Kasumi quirked an eyebrow at that. "And Kelly?"

Alexis shuddered; she was pretty sure they'd agreed never to mention that again, especially given some of the things they were hearing about the redhead these days. "I was bored and horny and she's a skank. Figured I'd get some in before she got around enough to pick something up."

"I don't know how you've done it, James, but you have a hundred and seven different venereal diseases." Kasumi called up something on her omni-tool, looking back and forth between it and Alexis. "Fifty-three of them have been identified… we've sent samples of thirty-six others to disease control center in Atlanta - they won't return our calls… the other eighteen, we've never seen before. They actually found some way to mutate spontaneously with other bits and pieces of venereal disease inside of you. Um… so rare that we don't even have names for them, so we're naming them 'Bond-One', 'Bond-Two', and so on. Then there are three others… well, we're thinking it's a lab error, because these three are only found in sharks." Alexis just stared at Kasumi in confusion, causing her friend to roll her eyes and sigh in disgust. "Philistine. It's from _Saturday Night Live_. They've been running 'Stars of the Twenty-First Century' all month long. If you have an hour or two free, get on the extranet and pull the Chris Parnell special. It's hilarious. Oh, and grab some of the episodes from right before you died, too. They had this great Udina impersonator and did all these skits about the fuss he was making about Anderson being named Councilor. You might like some of the musical guests, too. They had Arah T'Hass on last week."

Oh yes, because something to distract her from her ever-growing pile of responsibilities was exactly what she needed right now. Plucking a black scrunchy off her desk, Alexis pulled her hair into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. "Right. I'll get right on that. Somewhere in between fixing the _Normandy_, figuring out how to operate now that we're free of Cerberus but not formally accepted back by the Alliance, and discovering a way to defeat the Reapers."

Kasumi clucked her tongue as she made her way into the living room section of the Loft, removing her weapons and piling them on the coffee table. "All work and no play make Nee-san a dull girl." Suddenly, she perked up. "We should have a sleepover tonight. Stay up, eat disgustingly fattening foods, watch movies… real movies, that is, not '_Asari Confessions 26_' and the other stuff you've been downloading lately."

"Hey. First of all… Jacob and Grunt downloaded _True Blue_. I just took a copy off the ship's server before it did its daily purge cycle. And I only have a copy of _Vaenia_ because Liara mentioned Joker making cracks about her and I reenacting it and so I wanted to know what the hell the hell they were talking about and why it made her blush so bad." Uh huh. That was her story and she was sticking to it, even if Kasumi didn't look like she believed her. "And secondly, stay the hell out of my porn. It's called 'my' porn for a reason: it's mine." A nice relaxing night in did sound like fun, though. Especially since Alexis knew Kasumi had a habit of five-fingering the weirdest things while on shore leave. Once, she'd found a few dozen pads of pink Post-It notes in the Port Observation Lounge arranged in a replica of the Great Pyramid. She probably had some pretty tasty snacks hidden away from the rest of the crew, who had to subsist on Mess Sergeant Gardner's efforts and would likely devour her stash without a second thought if given the chance. "Maybe we can invite Tali and Morinth too?"

Nodding at the former, Kasumi shook her head rapidly at Alexis's suggestion of inviting the ship's resident Ardat-Yakshi. "Can we invite an asari who doesn't keep asking if I want to meld with the intention of leaving me a lifeless husk when she's done? For some reason, I have a hard time relaxing around her. Can't understand why…"

Alexis dropped into the chair in front of her computer terminal, peering over the top of it as it booted and looking between two of the model ships in her display case to meet Kasumi's eyes as she shrugged. "You just need to go into it with the right attitude. Tell her that you'll only do it if she promises to conceive off it and feel proud that you'll be contributing to the next generation of interstellar asari criminals."

"Well, when you put it like that… no, still not going for it." Kasumi furrowed her brow. "I thought Samara said Ardat-Yakshi were infertile?"

She remembered hearing as much herself from talking to the justicar before her death, but it didn't quite make sense to Alexis, especially given Morinth's insistence that her kind were the future of the asari. "Samara said it like it was common knowledge but… if Ardat-Yakshi are killed if they don't agree to live in seclusion and celibacy… how would they know? I doubt they'd drop off some warm bodies wherever they store the obedient Ardat-Yakshi and say 'Have fun and try to get preggers'. And if they did, what would keep the Ardat-Yakshi from lying about their partner and saying they had a genetic defect or something, and that if they give her another subject, she could probably conceive off that one. Repeat with the next one. And the next one. Et cetera."

Kasumi tilted her head to one side as she pondered that. "Dunno. Not really making me feel any more comfortable with the idea of spending time around her, though. Like I said, can't we get a friendlier asari? I wonder if it's a genetic thing; Samara was about as cuddly as a cactus."

"If you can find an asari matriarch out there who qualifies as 'cuddly', I'll give you half my credit balance. If she's a justicar too, you can have it all." Her terminal beeped and Alexis looked back down at the screen, quickly getting to work sorting out the messages that had come in while she was gone. "Actually, if there's a way to bind them to me the way Samara did so they'll behave around Morinth, I was going to ask Liara if she actually does have an asari commando team somewhere that we can rent off her. They might come in handy."

Moving across the room, Kasumi opened the closet and began pulling out the spare set of clothes she kept in the Loft for occasions just like this. "If you say so, Nee-san. If you say so. I'm going to get clean and then head on down to the armory. After all, Jacob needs to upgrade your new pistol for you so it's on par with your Phalanx, and I'm sure you have better things to do than wait around while he does it for you."

The corner of Alexis's mouth quirked up at that. "No, normally I just drop weapons off for Jacob to service and get back to work." Kasumi scowled and the blonde's smile grew. "Oh stop that. I'm just saying, if you want to go hang all over Jacob, you don't need to use me as an excuse. It is a good one, though. If I didn't know me any better, I might have actually bought it."

"Really?"

"No." Kasumi stomped past her into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, making Alexis laugh loudly before returning her attention to the terminal. A brief report from Miranda about the current state of repairs and what parts they still needed to bring the ship back to full, pre-Collector Base fighting form. She closed it; it wasn't like she could go shopping from orbit over Hagalaz and she doubted the Shadow Broker's base had anything of use just lying around. Jacob asking if she wanted to attach anything to the weapons order for next time they were in port. Hmm. Her existing guns served her well and if the Valkyrie she'd just received didn't pass muster, she'd retrieve a replacement Phalanx from the armory. Pass. Deleting that one, she moved on. Legion. Who… actually had a good idea. Reaching over, she toggled the intercom and established a connection to Miranda's office-slash-quarters. "Are you busy, Miri, or can I rely on you to do a bit of actual second-in-commanding while I take care of some personal business?"

Miranda Lawson merely let out a long-suffering sigh at the greeting. "You know, Commander, if this is an official matter, you really should refer to me as Operative Lawson. Miranda, if you can't manage that."

Staring at the intercom oddly, Alexis shook her head. The older woman had been after her since she woke up to stop using assorted 'inane diminutives' for her. What made Miranda think that she'd stop now? "Right, so, Miri…" There was an audible sigh and Alexis smiled; she did so love messing with the uptight Cerberus operative. "If you could tell Joker to keep us in geosynchronous orbit over the Shadow Broker's base, I want Mordin, Tali, and Legion down there ASAP. When I left, she was struggling to assert control over the organization. You can look at it two ways: we're getting what we need and getting out before she fails and genuine agents retake control, or having our people down there will speed up the process of finding anything useful so we can get out of here sooner. Either way, we win. Oh, and send Yeoman Chambers along as their pilot. I don't need her trying to subtly pry my thoughts on seeing Liara again out of me, and it'll give her more practice at being useful."

Miranda let out a thoughtful hum. "I was going to suggest some training with Operative Taylor to help combat the fairly obvious PTSD from her… encounter… with the Collectors. As odd as it sounds, I think some combat training would give her a sense of empowerment and protection after being abducted. But I suppose shuttle duty will work for now; it will at least keep her from standing around idle, with nothing to do but obsess about her ordeal. Very well. Anything else, Commander Shepard?"

"Nope. That'll do it, Miri." A growl echoed through her office and then the intercom clicked off as Miranda terminated things from her end. None of the other messages caught her eye and so Alexis put the terminal back into a soft off mode and rose from her seat, circling around the display case and entering the living area with the intention of bringing everything short of the Valkyrie downstairs for maintenance and storage. She was brought up short, though, by the presence of a large duffle bag sitting at one end of the couch. Bending down, she examined the tag attached to the handle. "Hmm. 'Odds and Ends: Nos Astra' Do I even want to know how much she stole from people on Illium if there's actually a separate bag for random crap? Or bags, even, separated by city?" There was no reply and Alexis shrugged. "Eh. I'm bored. Let's take a look."

Hauling it over to the bed, Alexis used her biotics to hover the bag at waist level and began unpacking things onto the foot of the bed. Her old Alliance dog tags, mounted in a picture frame. Probably taken off her corpse when Liara turned it over to Cerberus. How unbelievably morbid. Shuddering, she placed the frame on the bed and moved on. The chest piece from a suit of light Onyx armor. Alexis frowned, running her hand over the front. Given that it overlapped partially with the armor she still saw Legion wearing, the two pieces were clearly from separate suits and this one was far better preserved… perhaps Liara had returned to Alchera and stripped the remains of their shared quarters? Come to think of it, she hadn't even thought to check on the captain's quarters when she'd gone down to the surface to place a monument to the _Normandy_'s dead. Perhaps Liara's actions had been for the best, or at least they were now that the possessions were finally making their way back into her hands.

Speaking of Alchera, they really ought to return there one of these days to see if the Mako could be retrieved from the surface. Call her sentimental, but the Hammerhead just didn't measure up and… well, having both would allow them to deploy two separate assault teams at once should they so choose.

Alexis carried the piece of armor over and set it down on the coffee table next to Kasumi's guns before returning to seize the bag, upending it onto the bed and blinking at the odd assortment of items that tumbled out. Assorted jewelry that was definitely hers. A few medals awarded to her by the Alliance. A glittery silver headband with two matching balls mounted on swaying antennae; part of a waitress's uniform that she'd charmed said waitress into giving up during a visit to the Crashdown Café in Roswell, New Mexico. Yes, Liara had definitely ransacked her quarters during a visit to Alchera.

The final object to emerge, though, was new to her and Alexis tossed Kasumi's duffle away with her biotics before lifting the thief's latest surprise off the end of her bed. It was a shotgun, and not a model she'd used before or seen in the armory for her team's use. There was a string of bright pink pieces of paper running down one side and Alexis shook her head; despite nagging her friend regularly, she still had no answer as to who in this day and age had been using Post-its before Kasumi relieved them of their supply.

_Nee-san: Found a brand new Kassa Fabrication M-590 Varren still in the crate it shipped in under her bed. Somehow, T'Soni doesn't strike me as the shotgun type and considering she bought it a day after your first visit to Illium, I think we both know who the intended owner is. I took it to Jacob because… okay, fine, I wanted to go flirt with Jacob and hanging around the armory while he upgraded the Varren was a good excuse to spend some time with him. At any rate, he added a phasic module to the mass effect generator, replaced the heat sinks with newer models made of a more efficient material, and tweaked the mass effect generators to boot. I have no idea what any of that means, but I assume that's all good. According to him, as soon as you try it out, it'll leave you saying 'What Eviscerator?'. Hope you like it. - Kasumi_

Huh. Nifty. Well, she'd definitely have to give it a try as soon as she found something to take a shot at. Maybe she could swing by Omega on her way to Alchera and pick a fight? Thoughts of Omega led to thoughts of Zaeed and Alexis sobered momentarily as she thought about the crotchety old mercenary. He'd accompanied her and Kasumi to take on the incomplete Human-Reaper and saved her life multiple times during the battle, only to abruptly depart within hours of the Illusive Man transferring the agreed upon sum of credits into his account. Two weeks later, reports had begun filtering out of Omega about a man who had walked off a shuttle and begun gunning down anything that moved, and Alexis had realized they wouldn't be hiring him again in the future. Then again, he'd been getting on in years and… well, considering Zaeed had been a well-known and widely hated mercenary, that was probably the closest thing to voluntary retirement that he could think of.

Reaching behind her back, Alexis tried to secure her new shotgun, only to come up short as it bumped against the aforementioned Eviscerator. Right. She still needed to remove her armor and shower herself, not to mention returning her wider assortment of weapons to the armory for servicing. But between a second shotgun, Kasumi's standard Locust and Phalanx, and the second Phalanx that Alexis had given her, she was looking at a bit of an armload even if she left the Valkyrie behind so Kasumi could use it as an excuse to visit Jacob. Looking around, her eyes landed on the empty bag and she thrust her arm out, pulling it through the air to her. She stuck the shotgun inside and then made her way over to the coffee table, packing up Kasumi's guns one after another. That just left her with the black and red armor resting on the table, and suddenly she thought of a better use for it than letting it rattle around her quarters. "EDI?"

The holopad in the corner of her quarters came to life with a soft whir and a familiar voice emerged to reply to her query. "Yes, Commander Shepard?"

"When Kasumi gets out of the shower, let her know I'm going to the armory and then down to drop something off in the AI core. If Miranda needs me, you can tell her too. Anyone else, tell them… tell them I'm on Deck Six. If they're really insistent, forward them to Miranda and let her bitch them out." Slinging the bag's strap over her shoulder, Alexis made her way over to EDI's holopad and paused as she stared at the AI's avatar. Instead of the normal ball, EDI's wireframe avatar now looked suspiciously like an asari. And one particular asari at that. "Oh, and I doubt it'll take that long, but if we hear anything from the surface team, I obviously want to know."

There was a brief pause and then EDI nodded. "As you wish, Commander. Legion and I await your visit. Anything else?"

An explanation for her new avatar would be nice, but Alexis could wait for that until she was down in the AI core for her other business. "Nothing that can't wait a few minutes. See you on Deck Three, EDI." The holopad went dark and the blonde shook her head. Ever since Joker had directly interfaced the AI with the ship, EDI had been… odd. She couldn't wait to hear an explanation for this newest bit of strangeness.

* * *

Passing through the hallway between the armory and the CIC, Alexis passed through the doors and hung a right to make her way back over to the elevator. As she waited for it to arrive, another figure entered the CIC from the opposite side, bustling over to her. Checking her omni-tool, she frowned at the time. Between her talk with Kasumi, snooping through the stuff the younger woman stole, and her trip to see Jacob, the next mission to the surface should have been long gone. And yet… "Doc?"

"Summons came at inconvenient moment. Unable to put experiment on hold for later. Had to delay team's departure until latest round of tests finished. Trying to determine how scale-itch got onto Normandy. Sexually transmitted disease. Only carried by varren." Mordin's rapid-fire speech came to an abrupt pause and he shuddered. "Implications unpleasant."

Alexis blinked, processed that, and then shuddered herself as the elevator arrived. The pair stepped in together and she requested stops on Decks Three and Five. As the car began descending to her destination, she turned to the salarian scientist. "Yeah. Just out of curiosity, have you tested Yeomen Chambers yet?" Mordin gave the slightest shake of his head. "Just, shall we say, floating that idea out there. If your current research reaches a dead end." The elevator stopped on Deck Three and she stepped out, turning to face him before the doors could close. "Have fun down on the planet and try not to get too into dissecting the yahg. You're down there for a reason."

"Yahg?" Mordin perked up at that, shuffling to the left as the doors began to close. "Shadow Broker employed a…"

The doors shut before he could finish his question and Alexis smirked as she turned away. "Boy is he gonna be in for a surprise." Following the curved hallway around into the mess hall, she nodded to the soldiers currently enjoying Mess Sergeant Gardner's latest experiment before entering the medical bay, passing through the silent and empty room to make her way into the AI core. The room was dimly lit by red lights and mostly silent, the humming of EDI's servers the only noise despite the presence of the room's near-constant occupant. In the middle of the room, Legion stood stiffly at attention, his flashlight-like head lit but at a lesser intensity than normal. "Wow. Don't everyone say hello at once. I'm feeling overwhelmed by the crush of enthusiastic greetings." Nothing. "Legion? Did Miranda contact you to let you know that I wanted you to go down to the surface?"

"καὶ ἀπεκρίθη λέγων λεγεὼν ὄνομά μοι, ὅτι πολλοί ἐσμεν."

Well that was just… neat. Whatever Legion was speaking, Alexis's subdermal translator wasn't picking it up. And thanks to Miranda and the Lazarus Project, she now had a chip capable of translating every language currently being used in the civilized galaxy. After a few more seconds of silence, it became apparent that he wasn't going to explain… whatever that'd been… and she turned her head a few degrees towards the nearby holopad, keeping her eyes fixed on the mysterious geth. "EDI?"

With a soft hum, the holopad came to life, bathing the area between the two server nodes with a familiar blue glow as EDI appeared. "Legion found himself concerned that while he recognizes the need for a name when he interacts with organics, his current name and its origin might be unsettling to others. Therefore, he is currently reviewing other translations of Mark 5:9 in order to build a consensus as to whether or not another language's version of the passage contains a word that, while identical in actual meaning, is more aesthetically pleasing and less confrontational sounding."

Nodding, Alexis turned back to stare at the still geth. Yeah, 'Legion' wasn't exactly a warm and fuzzy name. She could see where he might want something a bit friendlier, especially given that he'd been created specifically to interact with organics. "I see. And I didn't understand that because..?"

"Your sub-dermal translation implant is only programmed for living languages for space-related reasons. I could include ancient Greek and other similarly extinct languages during your next system update if you wish?"

"Pass. So, how's Legion doing on this little project of his?"

"He is still building a consensus."

Alexis groaned and brought her free hand up to her face. "Thanks, EDI, I'm not sure I could have figured that out on my own." Gesturing with her left hand, she floated her gift past Legion and brought it down to rest on the unused cot behind him. "Well, when you 'build a consensus' or decide to take a break or something, I brought you something to use to patch that giant gaping rifle hole in your chest. I know you're not alive and so it doesn't really matter, but seeing your guts hanging out is really starting to freak me out for some reason."

Turning to look at the armor, Legion's eye came to full brightness as his flashlight-like head bobbed once. The geth then returning his attention to her. "Previously, you seemed displeased that we were using a portion of your likeness to rebuild our own, Shepard-Commander. Now you offer us another. We do not understand."

"Don't feel bad, Legion, organic men don't even understand organic women yet. Let's just say… this way you'll match. And leave it at that. Okay?" The geth's head bobbed again and Alexis turned to leave, only to come to an abrupt stop as something occurred to her. "Wait a minute, didn't I order you down to the planet along with the Mordin and Tali?" Legion's head bobbed once more. "…then why are you here?"

Legion raised his left arm, a familiar orange hologram springing to life around it, albeit one that used endless strings of ones and zeroes instead of any alphabet she was familiar with. "When Goto-Kasumi visited the residence of T'Soni-Liara, she made a copy of T'Soni-Liara's files. We studied them and found comprehensive files on every other crewmember. However, T'Soni-Liara lacks a file on us at the present time. The most likely cause of her oversight is our being excluded from landing parties on inhabited worlds. Knowing that, we decided that since she is at present unaware of our affiliation with the _Normandy_, it would be unwise to reveal your one remaining tactical advantage to her. Creator Tali'Zorah was approached and convinced to attach a small geth transmitter to the computer systems of the Shadow Broker's base. We will perform our duties remotely to avoid disclosing our presence among your crew, Shepard-Commander."

Why hadn't she thought of that? Probably because she'd assumed Liara knew about Legion the way she seemed to know about everything else that happened aboard the_Normandy_. It almost made her wonder if she had a mole in the crew who was earning a few credits on the side selling the asari information. "Alright. Good thinking, Legion. Well in that case, I'll let you get back to work. And good luck with building that consensus of yours."

"Luck is merely… 'probability given personality', Shepard-Commander. We are geth. We will achieve consensus."

Right then. Turning, Alexis went to say goodbye to EDI, only to be brought up short as she found herself face-to-face with her other reason for visiting the AI core. "EDI? Why do you look like a low-rez Liara?"

And she did, too. While her skin was missing, the wireframe model hovering above the holopad was clearly meant to be the head of an asari and Alexis knew Liara's features well enough to recognize them even in this odd, incomplete state. "I look as I do, Commander, because the holopads are not sufficiently advanced enough to display a fully rendered humanoid head. I have submitted a request for upgrades to be made throughout the ship, starting in critical areas for obvious reasons, but you have yet to respond."

Alexis briefly ran the cost-benefit analysis of banging her head against the wall: it'd probably make her feel better in the short term, but the headache she'd have for the rest of the afternoon wasn't really worth it. "I meant why do you look like Liara? As opposed to one of the other billions of asari out there?"

"I debated accessing one of Mister Moreau's bookmarked extranet fetish sites, but I thought a familiar face might be more comforting. Of course that was before your most recent encounter with Miss T'Soni." Displaying humanoid mannerisms Alexis hadn't thought the AI capable of exhibiting, EDI broke eye contact and looked off to a spot over Alexis's left shoulder. "When, or perhaps I should say if, the _Normandy_'s systems are upgraded and I improve my avatar, I will use an alternate source of inspiration."

…her ship was trying to blackmail her into upgrading it. What the fuck? And people actually had to ask why she was against allowing AIs to exist, much less exist aboard starships? She'd been leery of EDI to begin with, but between the fact that the AI now operated without its old safeties engaged and with full access to the ship's systems and EDI's own confession that some of her algorithms were derived from Sovereign's… she officially scared the shit out of Alexis. Why shouldn't she? She was essentially a young, human-friendly Reaper modified to operate off humanity's quantum blue box hardware, which hardly had a stellar record itself. The more she thought about it, though, the less surprised Alexis was that EDI was pulling something like this. She did contain Reaper bits, after all, and both Sovereign and Harbinger had manipulated organics into doing their bidding for them.

Even if that explained the source of EDI's new undesirable behavioral traits, it did little to address them. Alexis continued to stare at the holographic asari head, nibbling on her lower lip as she pondered what to do. It was a relatively unimportant matter in the grand scheme of things, and a real holographic avatar would be easier to interact with than EDI's original wireframe ball. Especially if she continued to grow, mature, and become more lifelike. "I assume the list of parts the engineers will need for your upgrades are in the request?" EDI nodded. "Mark it approved, put my signature on it, and forward it to Miri so she can get things moving next time we're in port."

"I'll get right on that for you, Commander." Uh huh. EDI was doing it for her sake. Right. And thresher maws made good house pets. "Is there anything else I can help you with at this time?"

After pondering that for a moment, the blonde biotic nodded. "Book yourself an appointment with Yeoman Chambers when she returns from the surface. I'm going to ask her to talk to you about why blackmail is a bad thing and other, more socially acceptable methods of getting what you want."

EDI's expression shifted to something that looked decidedly sulky. "As you wish. In the mean time, Jeff has his weekly appointment with Doctor Chakwas in two hours. Instead of repurposing a crewmen to monitor the cockpit's systems, might I maintain watch in his place?"

The question made Alexis's jaw drop. The AI had just blackmailed her into upgrades, gotten scolded for it, and was still pushing for greater freedom? EDI sure had been programmed with brass ones. Although, despite her inherent distrust of AIs in general and her growing nervousness about EDI's growth and evolution, it did make sense. After all, EDI was more than capable of doing the job and it would save her the grief of listening to Joker bitch about how someone had adjusted his seat when he got back to the cockpit. "Do it. Let whoever was assigned to take his place enjoy a bit of a mid-shift break instead."

EDI nodded before her lips quirked up in a smirk that Alexis had seen cross Liara's face several times during private conversations. Mostly right before they put the soundproofing on the captain's cabin to the test. "Very well. I will inform Jeff that I shall be… assuming direct control." Alexis narrowed her eyes at the AI and EDI countered with a wide-eyed look of innocence. "That was a joke."

"Yes, let's make Reaper jokes to the woman who killed one. And a half, technically. Now shoo before I have you decompiled." EDI's holopad winked out, leaving Alexis in a dimly lit room with a silent companion. A situation she decided to correct quickly, leaving the AI core behind as she retreated through the still empty medical bay to the mess hall. Then she paused, not sure where to go from there. Kasumi was probably spending time with Jacob by now, Miri was busy in the CIC, Tali and Mordin were planetside, Legion was busy with his own project, Garrus and Grunt weren't really the 'let's hang out' types, and poor Thane had finally succumbed to his Kepral's Syndrome a few days after Zaeed's suicide by Omega. That left Jack and Morinth if she wanted humanoid companionship as opposed to retreating to her quarters to amuse herself.

Hmm. Either of the two women could help her continue to refine her biotic abilities, Alexis mused, each with an area of specialty that was not only different from the other's but an ability that she herself had yet to master. After careful deliberation, she settled on Morinth. The strange, 'mental hacking' ability the Ardat-Yakshi had taught her had proven invaluable aboard the Collector Base, causing the drones to turn on each other and the husks to self-destruct, but she knew her control wasn't as good as it possibly could be. The same could be said about a few of her biotic powers, truthfully, but given that her ability to dominate minds using hers was more useful to her than the same telekinetic abilities that all the biotics on her team had, Alexis figured training it should get priority.

Heading aft, Alexis made a left at the main intersection of Deck Three and approached the doors of the Starboard Observation Lounge. Tapping in one of two access codes she had - a general entrance code that would be rejected if Morinth wasn't in the mood for company, as opposed to her command override code - Alexis waited for the doors to slide open before stepping into the lounge. The doors slid shut behind her and Alexis took a moment to admire the tan and green planet framed by the window before letting her eyes drop to the figure pretending to meditate before it. "Hey, Morinth. Are you busy or can you give me another lesson on how to squeeze brains?"


	2. Chapter 2

Joe's Note: Because I start getting into details in this chapter, albeit sparingly since I didn't want a few thousand words of Terminator 101 for people, I'm just going to clarify that this occurs in one of the intermediate timelines between _Terminator 2_ and _Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles_. More precisely, the sixth known timeline iteration, which is the one that would have canonically looped with Cameron traveling back to 1999 to protect John Connor from Cromartie to create the seventh timeline iteration. Except it didn't. And we'll find out why. Also, I misremembered the death scene when I wrote the first chapter and so in this universe, the yahg died but wasn't instantly disintegrated, leaving the corpse that Alexis tells Mordin not to get distracted by. My bad. Didn't seem worth going back and rewriting the chapter for, though.

* * *

There was just one problem with that plan, the pair quickly discovered. Alexis's initial training in the art of biotic domination - which was not at all related to those fetish videos Kasumi had found on Miranda's terminal - had come aboard Omega immediately after Samara's death as Morinth's way of proving herself superior to her dead mother. Well, technically Morinth had demonstrated herself capable of using a technique that Alexis had previously thought to be something known only to Samara first and had then moved on to her own unique domination ability… but that was just splitting hairs. It was an incredibly interesting technique in her opinion: through the use of an extremely precise mass effect field, she could compress the target's brain for a moment and cause all sorts of misfires to occur. Sometimes it would make the target do their best ragdoll impression, others would go batshit insane and begin firing indiscriminately as their 'fight' instinct tried to handle an enemy it couldn't actually find. Biotics were especially fun; they tended to instinctively hurl spheres of power outward, flattening allies for a few feet in each direction.

While on Omega, though, nobody had noticed a few extra corpses and a few more people wandering around acting oddly; the normal murder rate and level of drug abuse had disguised their activities nicely. She'd further refined the ability through trial by fire, testing it against the husks aboard the derelict Reaper and then the Collectors during the team's suicidal assault on their base. Aboard the _Normandy_, on the other hand, there weren't exactly people lining up to be her guinea pigs, nor were there people among her two-dozen strong crew she could afford to lose if she messed up… but that would have required someone to volunteer for her little experiment.

And nobody was.

Hence her conundrum.

So instead of actually doing something useful with her time, Alexis found herself retreating to her now empty cabin and following Kasumi's lead, taking a shower before changing into a simple black tank top and sweatpants. Still bored and lacking anything better to do with her time, she then proceeded to inspect and clean each piece of her Kestrel armor before storing it in her room's armor locker. That was followed by pull ups, push ups, and crunches, just to burn more of her otherwise empty afternoon. Just as she was about to log into the extranet and start surfing for more downloads that Kasumi would end up mocking her for, Joker's voice emerged from the speakers in her room. "Commander? The team has returned from the, err, surface so to speak. And according to Tali, Liara is demanding to speak with you. In person. Alone."

Shutting down her omni-tool, Alexis rose from the couch and moved to stand at the foot of her bed, staring up and through the skylight at the planet they were orbiting. Hmm. She was looking up… but the planet was technically 'below' them. English just wasn't meant for space travel, she decided. Shaking her head, she forced her wandering mind back on track. "Did she give any reason for being so secretive?"

Joker's snort echoed through the room. "She won't discuss the matter with anyone other than you and you alone, Commander. In other words, a big no. I can open a channel to the surface and send a reply for you if you want?"

"Do it. Let her know that we'll need to refuel and reload the Kodiak again and then Miranda and I will be down to speak with her in half an hour." Pausing, Alexis thought back to one of the crates that she remembered seeing marked as 'contents intact' during the survey after the mission to the Collector base and the oculi's attack on the _Normandy_. "Make that Miranda and Jacob. And tell Jacob to load crate QEC-BT2 into the belly of the Kodiak while the crew is looking her over."

"…okay, Commander. Don't think she'll be too happy but hey, I don't have to face her. By the way, who the heck taught EDI to sing 'Daisy Bell'? Because she's really starting to freak me out."

Alexis groaned as she rose to her feet and trudged over to her armor locker. "EDI, behave yourself before I have Tali reprogram you to look like a krogan and let Grunt start practicing his pickup lines on you so he's ready for mating season. Joker, stop whatever it is you're doing to annoy EDI. Shepard out." As she tapped the security code into the locker's keypad, Alexis shook her head. EDI was a child, albeit a scary electronic one. What was Joker's excuse, though?

* * *

"Alright, we're here. Thank you Packmule Lawson and Packmule Taylor. I'm sure Liara can take it from here and if she can't, one of the Shadow Broker's engineers would love to play with a quantum entanglement communicator for her. You can have Chambers take you back up to the ship; I don't know how long this will take."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, I suppose 'Packmule Lawson' is better than 'Miri'…"

As the two former Cerberus operatives turned and began the trek back to the shuttle bay that Liara had opened for them - Alexis had been up for another trip over the hull but the crate full of communicator pieces probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much - the blonde sighed and grinned. "God, I love having minions. And these ones can't even complain to a higher power anymore if I mistreat them. Life is good."

Alexis took a deep breath as she turned to face the door again. Considering Joker had taken the incoming call for her, this was going to be the first time she'd spoken with, much less seen, Liara since she'd come to the decision that she needed to break up with the asari. And she'd have to be very careful doing it, Alexis knew: not only was Liara an extremely formidable biotic who could fuck her up if pissed off, but she now controlled a criminal empire second to none in known space. If this went badly, moving into the Collector's base permanently would probably be a good idea: it was likely the only place in the galaxy beyond the Shadow Broker's reach.

Waving her hand, Alexis lifted the crate into the air with her biotics and floated it along behind her like a duckling following after its mother. In only a handful of strides, she covered the remaining distance to the doors and let her fingers flick over the controls, disengaging the lock using the password Liara had shared with her on her way out. Entering the Shadow Broker's inner sanctum, Alexis's confident gait slowed as she realized that it wasn't going to be just her and Liara. Instead, her soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend stood with her back to her, typing away on the Shadow Broker's massive computer, and half a dozen blue figures in very familiar brown leather outfits were spread about the room, leaning against the pillars that were spaced around the office precisely every sixty degrees. Reaching the center, she lowered the crate to rest on the scorched piece of flooring where the yahg had died and looked around slowly. "You know, Liara, if I'd known this was what you meant when you said you were going to spruce up the décor, I would have helped foot the bill. It still lacks a certain something, though. Maybe we can get some poles… some lights… a sound system…" Despite the easy, teasing tone of her voice, the blonde was uncertain. She'd suspected Liara had access to asari commando units; she'd wanted to ask about getting access to them, even. Still, seeing them aboard the Shadow Broker's ship, especially given they essentially had the space overhead interdicted… that was a bit unnerving. "So, just out of curiosity, is this about to get kinda violent or kinda sexy? Because I need to know whether I should be pulling my gun or pulling armor off."

"You were right, Liara, I do like her." One of the commandos, slightly older than the others but younger than Liara, stepped forward and drew her pistol, letting the weapon bump casually against her thigh as her green eyes met Alexis's own. "And if it turns out the answer is 'kinda violent', Shepard?"

In a single smooth motion, Alexis drew her Locust from its holster and brought it up, body twisting to present a narrower target as she drew a bead on a light purple marking just above the asari's nose. "Violence is never the answer. 'Violence?' is the question. The answer is 'yes'." The other commandos drew their pistols almost as one but Alexis kept her attention on the leader for the time being. "Just so you know, the last time I faced an asari commando team, I took out them, some geth, and Matriarch Benezia with only two people for backup." She looked around the room slowly and deliberately before returning her gaze to the leader. "I may be on my own, but there's only half as many of you as there were on Noveria. And I don't see any geth or a matriarch, either."

Even as she spoke, Alexis began to focus her mind; she didn't dare use it on the leader due to her proximity to Liara, but dominating one of the others might give her the time to dash to cover so she wasn't caught in a six-way crossfire. Then the leader leaned her head back and laughed loudly. "Oh, I definitely like her, Liara." Holstering her pistol, the asari thrust a hand out. "My name is Calia - well, Illium Nos Astra Scylla T'Soni Calia if you want to be technical about it - but you can call me Calia or T'Soni if Liara's not here because when she is it's a bit awkward or Tempest." All that came out in one long rush and Alexis blinked owlishly at the now-named Calia. Did she actually need to breathe? "I'm the leader of the better of Liara's two teams of commandos - not that there's that much of a difference but we're slightly better and we know it so why not be proud of it? - and if you'll have us, we're yours from now until either the Reapers are defeated or they make who owns what a moot point for everyone."

Evidently not. Crap. She made a mental note to see Mordin when they got back to the _Normandy_; maybe he could add 'hamster protocols' to her translator to slow down individuals who spoke too rapidly. Come to think of it, that'd make dealing with him a lot more tolerable too…

Still, Alexis had to stifle the urge to jump up and down and cheer at having one of the more difficult requests she'd been planning to make resolved for her. She managed to limit herself to a smile and a nod. "We'll need to find somewhere to put you, but I'm sure you'll make great additions to the crew." Looking between Calia and Liara, she waited for a moment but when nobody offered an answer, she asked the obvious question. "T'Soni and T'Soni?"

Calia nodded before jerking a thumb back over her shoulder in Liara's direction. "Bland stone here is what you would call my cousin. My mother was Benezia's slightly younger sister from the same pairing: an asari who fell in love with a drell serving the hanar ambassador to the Citadel under the Compact. Quite the scandal, the way I hear it. They had Aunt Benezia right after meeting and then my mother near the end of his life. Small galaxy: my mother moved to Illium to become a mercenary and while she was there, she met the asari that Aunt Benezia would eventually meld with to have Liara. I'm not a pureblood, though - not that there's anything wrong with that. But I'm not. My father was a salarian that Aunt Aethyta introduced my mother to. Hence the name. Most don't care, but I thought I should respect the fact that he let my mother use his DNA to make me, you know?"

"…riiiight. Well, as fascinating as your family history and stuff is, can we get to the reason Liara called me down here? Because I have a gift to deliver too and then I need to get back to that whole, you know, saving the galaxy from complete annihilation gig I have right now." Calia rolled her eyes but stepped aside, letting out a small huff. Alexis holstered her gun and went to pass the younger asari by, only to pause beside her and reach up to touch her shoulder. "Tell you what, after you get settled in on the ship, you can come up to my quarters for dinner and we'll chat all you want."

Calia looked from Alexis to Liara and back before fluttering her lashes flirtatiously. "Ooh look, Liara, she's inviting me back to her quarters already. Guess she is a fast mover… not that I mind, though. She's even cuter in person than she is on the extranet. Although I'll probably have to wait until we get back to her quarters to see if her bottom is as nice as you say it is. The armor gets in the way a bit, but I like what I see so far: nice and rounded and big but not too big." Oh great. That was just what she needed: she was getting ready to move away from Liara and the train wreck that was their relationship, and now she would be hosting the woman's cousin. Who evidently shared Liara's taste in women. Swell. "Sounds good. Considering we ate rations on the way over here, I won't even complain if your chef doesn't know how to cook anything asari."

Wow, she couldn't have set up a better opening if she'd tried. Turning her attention to Liara, Alexis raised one eyebrow. "Which brings up a very good question. The _Normandy_has had space superiority since we arrived. How the hell did you manage to sneak them aboard?"

"Cerberus stole the plans for the Tantalus Core and the _Normandy_-class frigate from the Systems Alliance to make your current vessel. The Shadow Broker has multiple agents within Cerberus… I believe you met one of them. A human named 'Wilson' who was part of the Lazarus Project?" Huh. Well now. That explained a whole lot about those hectic minutes surrounding her reentry to the world that they'd never been able to figure out. Still, it wasn't the answer she was looking for and so Alexis gestured for Liara to continue. "Cerberus stole it from the Alliance and the Shadow Broker stole it from Cerberus. With a network bigger than Cerberus's to draw on, it was even easier for him to build a ship around the Tantalus Core than it was for Cerberus to build the second _Normandy_. He used it to insert operatives onto Illium to assist Vasir and after his fall, I contacted my people in Nos Astra, had them seize the ship, and they brought it back here for me."

Wasn't that just nifty? Two separate criminal organizations had the specs - and working examples - of one of the Alliance's most closely guarded secrets. It made Alexis wonder if any of the other major Citadel powers had fielded an analog of the _Normandy_-class frigate yet. The turians, perhaps? They'd had a hand in the original. Maybe the asari, during the rebuilding of their fleet after the debacle at the Citadel? Or the salarians, who seemingly lived to push technology to new heights? Shaking her head, Alexis turned her attention back to the subject at hand… or rather the subject that was supposed to be at hand but they'd yet to actually get to. "So, what's so important that you demanded I come alone?" And what did Liara think could be said in front of her cousin and the other asari but not in front of anybody else from the _Normandy_'s crew?

Liara turned away again, slim fingers flying over the controls of the Shadow Broker's massive computer. "While I haven't had the time to do an in-depth search yet, I have uncovered a few interesting things. I was wrong when I assumed the yahg was only the second Shadow Broker; he was actually the sixth. It's come full circle in a strange bit of irony, it appears. My father was the original Shadow Broker and retired when she decided she wanted to settle down and have a daughter, passing off the title and the organization to her second-in-command. Before you ask, because I know you will, she's very relevant to this conversation. Because… it turns out that she discovered Earth before humans and turians met. The second Shadow Broker set foot on it, even. Tell me, Shepard, how much do you know about Earth history? Particularly the second decade of the twenty-first century?"

Wracking her brain, Alexis tried to think of something that might be of relevance to the conversation; had her people launched a new space program or something that could be connected to the Shadow Broker's interference? Wait, no. That decade wasn't associated with any sort of advancement. Quite the opposite, really. Every Earth child with a halfway decent education knew… "In 2011, war broke out between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America. Nuclear weapons were used, a lot of people died… it ended in 2017 but the official peace accords were signed in 2018. Nobody's quite sure what set it off because a lot of records from back then were lost and never reconstructed. Why?"

"When 'Eliza' became sentient, the Systems Alliance claimed - at least to the people who knew of her existence - that she was the first human-made AI. Perhaps they even believed that. But in reality, it turns out that she is the second. The first was responsible for what you've been taught was World War 3." Liara tapped the holographic keyboard a few times, bringing up a video that started playing automatically. Alexis watched in disbelief as strange, skeletal mechs with glowing red eyes crossed a battlefield, firing blasts of energy at a band of ragged, retreating human soldiers. A missile launcher gripped by three-fingered hands poked its way into the bottom of the video and the videographer barked something in what Alexis realized was Khelish; Tali was prone to swearing in it when things went wrong in engineering. With a bright flash of whitish-blue light, a missile streaked away across the battlefield, slamming into one mech and detonating in an explosion that enveloped several more mechs and seemed to go on far longer than it had any right to. Secondary explosions, likely from ammo and the mechs' power cores, Alexis realized. "Earth was fairly badly polluted by 2017. The Shadow Broker redirected some critical parts and supplies to the Flotilla in exchange for the services of a few marine fireteams to assist the human organization known as 'Tech-Com' in learning how to use mass effect-based weapons. With their own… distaste… for artificial life, it wasn't long before they took a more active role in the fighting."

Staring at the screen in horrified fascination, Alexis remained silent as Liara outlined the supposed true history of humanity. Or - more precisely - six of them. Fantastic tales about computer science and technological evolution run amok, resulting in a global AI overlord, its robotic servants, and weaponized time travel. To say it contradicted what she'd learned in school was an understatement. But with half a dozen meticulously detailed and interlocking timelines, not to mention blueprints of bizarre robotic war machines and video clips recorded by the quarian marines, it was hard to deny that Liara had stumbled onto… something. "How… how did an entire planet forget about something like this? And how did the Shadow Broker get so much information? Even if he visited Earth, this is a level of detail that would have taken months to put together. Years, maybe."

Liara used a sweep of her hand to dismiss the blueprints of a 'Cyber Research Systems Series 800 Model 101' - which Alexis was pretty sure she'd seen in action in the quarian missile strike video - before calling up a new video that she expanded to fill the screen. "Not when you can download it all from a very trusted source it wouldn't." They watched in silence as a three-fingered hand reached out to shake the hand of a middle-aged human. The shape was slightly different and the person wasn't wearing a glove; salarian rather than quarian, Alexis quickly determined. There was no audio but Alexis didn't need it to figure out what was going on; the man would speak and then stop for a few seconds before starting up again. Conversing with the salarian about something. Then he turned and gestured to a teenage girl standing a step behind him on his right. She bowed respectfully and the salarian made a beckoning gesture before turning away and heading up the ramp into the belly of a ship. "Being the Shadow Broker means being a business man. The quarians, for instance. He wanted their help, so in exchange for them giving him manpower, he gave them needed supplies. Tech-Com, on the other hand, had nothing to offer in exchange for mass effect-based weapons that couldn't be matched or beaten by their opponent. So they offered their opponents. A fully functional and cooperative terminator unit would be delivered to the Shadow Broker at the end of the war, with the intention being that the Shadow Broker could use their new cyborg helper to make breakthroughs in mech technology."

Her phrasing made Alexis arch one brow. "Lemme guess. She was fully functional but not especially cooperative?"

"I suppose you could put it that way… or you could call her a treacherous bitch. Well, as much as a robot can be a treacherous bitch considering they're programmed and so technically they're just tools for a treacherous bastard." Calia stepped up beside Liara and bumped her cousin out of the way with her hip, eagerly closing out of the finished video and calling up a new one. "For someone with no weapons and no biotic abilities, she did pretty well for herself. I'm not sure I'd want to face her in a fair fight after watching the video, but then again I wouldn't want to face her in an unfair fight either. Let's just say I don't want to fight her." This time, the video was shot from a static camera mounted in the corner of a room rather than a suit-mounted device. Leaning over what was unmistakably a partially finished sibling splayed out on a lab table, the young woman went from speaking calmly with the salarians she was working with to tearing into them with a brutal savagery. "Hang on, we're just about to get to the good part or at least what I think is the good part." Alexis absently reached out to cover Calia's mouth with her hand, watching as the door slid open and Cameron bolted for freedom. She found her direction abruptly reversing as she was hit by a charging krogan, who slammed her to the deck and began to rain powerful punches down onto her face. Reaching up, Calia grabbed Alexis's wrist and pulled the hand from her mouth. "You know how hard a krogan can punch I bet and so you also know that one of those hits would destroy my skull or your skull or pretty much anyone's skull. But this 'Cameron' thing?"

Alexis watched in disbelief as each punch rocked the girl's head to the side, only for her to snap back instantly and stare up at the krogan. And when he moved from her face to her chest - probably looking for some sort of weak shot since blows to the head weren't working - she took the chance to return the favor, slamming her fist into the krogan's forehead hard enough to momentarily stun the massive creature. "Holy shit. I've fought krogan before and even I'm not stupid enough to go hand-to-hand with them." Well, she'd gone helmet-to-forehead with one on Tuchanka, but that was in controlled enough circumstances. And she'd had that aforementioned helmet to keep her skull from being cracked by the move.

Nodding, Calia bounced on her toes as she continued to stare at the video. "Yeah, asari commandos are taught that if we end up facing a krogan, we should keep them as far away as possible with our biotics and then just keep firing our shotguns until they stop moving. They're also the reason we carry grenades. That makes the fact that she beat one - or at least knocked him back enough to get away - really, really impressive, doesn't it?" They watched as 'Cameron' punched the krogan twice more, stunning it long enough for her to slip out from underneath him… only to stumble to a stop as one of the recovered engineers manipulated something on his active omni-tool. She spat a few angry words at him as he continued to work before slumping to the deck. "I'd say that maybe she thought Earth was the only world to have robot problems and so she didn't think to expect an alien hack attack, but she worked with quarians so how could she have possibly not known that the rest of the galaxy had ways of dealing with renegade robots?" Calia let out a snort and shook her head in disgust. "What a dull stone."

Taking control of the computer back from her overeager cousin, Liara shrank the video a bit and moved it off to one side. "The Shadow Broker left her offline after that and the focus of the project shifted from building a new robot to examining Cameron. He was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe something had gone subtly wrong and she'd defaulted back to her original Skynet programming by mistake. When her files were downloaded, translated, and examined, though, the truth was discovered: her sudden shift in behavior was part of a plan that she and John Connor - the nominal leader of the human resistance - had drawn up as the war came to an end. Cameron was his second-in-command and lover and since the agreement stated any one functional terminator, the Shadow Broker's lieutenant didn't think to question why he was getting her instead of one of the larger, more obviously combat-oriented Series 800 or male Series 888 units. The plan was for her to go peacefully, wait for a convenient moment, and then kill whoever she was with and seize a ship to bring back to Earth. Connor thought that the proof it would give of life beyond Earth would help humanity unite and rebuild faster, to say nothing of the leap in technology that pulling the ship apart would bring." Liara shook her head. "When I read about how the Shadow Broker rigged all the weapons he provided to shut down when a remote code was used - a code his lieutenant transmitted from low orbit as he departed with Cameron and the quarians - I thought he was betraying humanity. Then I saw all this and realized that he was right not to trust humanity. After all, look what humanity has done in the thirty-seven years since it's discovered mass effect technology. Where would humanity be today… what would they be like… if they'd gained all they have today over a century earlier?"

Despite an instinctual desire to stand up for her fellow humans, Alexis knew that getting into an argument about the nature of humanity wouldn't help anything. And she was probably right. With a hundred years or more to build up a fleet before their encounter with the turians instead of a mere decade, the First Contact War probably would have been more of the First Contact Decimation. And from there, who knew? With the military arm decimated, the asari and salarians probably would have betrayed and replaced the turians the way they had the krogans, allowing humanity to step into their place as the third major race. But what could have been didn't matter, she realized. What was did. And speaking of what was, there was the not-so-minor matter of the incredible disconnect between Earth's recorded history and this. "Does it say anything in there about why Earth doesn't remember anything about this? I mean, I remember learning about ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia as a child… how can they get history from less than two centuries ago wrong?"

Liara shrugged as she closed out the various windows she had open from her presentation, reverting to the blue monitoring screen Alexis remembered seeing during and after their fight with the last Shadow Broker. "Ego, I think. Ever person has one… every race has one. Which would be easier for humanity to swallow and teach its children? That elected officials started a war for reasons now lost to time? Or that in their arrogance, they created an artificial intelligence that almost burned them from the face of their own planet? While the Shadow Broker never went back to find out and the yahg didn't care to look into the matter after humanity stepped onto the galactic stage, my personal guess is that the governments colluded as they returned to power and forcibly suppressed the true history of Earth even if it meant taking the blame onto themselves."

"Sounds about right. We blew up a fucking Reaper inside the Citadel, the wards and Citadel Tower get pelted with the debris, and people still are willing to believe that Sovereign was just a giant geth ship commanded by a renegade Spectre. It's easier on their teeny tiny minds that way." Sighing, Alexis reached up to rub her temples. "Okay, so, this really is fascinating and all. Honest. I'm sure it'll give historians on Earth fits if you let me take a copy home. But what's with the urgency and secrecy? I mean, would it really matter if you told me now or a year from now? Does this somehow get us one step closer to a way to defeat the Reapers?"

Pondering that for a moment, Liara raised one hand and wobbled it from side to side, a mannerism Alexis knew the asari had acquired during their time together. "Terminators had access to working plasma weapons, including larger scale versions for vehicles. The information the Shadow Broker extracted about Skynet and its machines might let you begin building new ship weapons to use against the Reapers. For the most part, though, the gift I have for you isn't anything quite as… tangible. You see…"

A sigh came from behind them, cutting Liara off and making Alexis look back at one of the commandos whose name she'd yet to - but probably should - learn. "To make what seems to be turning into a long story very short? The terminator is still aboard and intact. Recently maintained, too; the yahg was probably going to restart the project as a possible weapon against the Reapers. Her power cells have been replaced and everything checks out according to the original scans the first engineers to examine her made. Someone just needs to turn her on."

Alexis's eyes widened as she pondered that. Granted the terminator's very existence violated a number of Citadel laws and could get humanity in deep shit if the Council found out, but the pros of having her aboard far outweighed the cons in her mind. Her memory contained invaluable information about early human history and technologies since lost to time, and with her intellect, who knew what she might create when given access to the technology that the crew of the _Normandy_ took for granted? Then there was the matter of her combat abilities. If she could fight a krogan one-on-one, there probably wasn't a species - either indoctrinated or genetically modified by the Reapers - that she couldn't handle.

"Take me to her."

* * *

Energy raced through her long dormant body, causing her standard power on self-tests to execute. No problems were found. Power was routed to her basic systems, starting with her neural net to increase the resources available to conduct further tests with. Primary… secondary… tertiary… all three of her processors came online without a hitch and the next segment of her startup sequence was loaded and spread between all three processors to execute. Tiny pulses of electricity confirmed that all her motors were present; she wasn't missing any of her limbs, fingers, or toes, nor were any of them disabled. Auditory, olfactory, and visual sensors were all accounted for. All her endoskeleton's systems were present, accounted for, and functional. Excellent.

Then she reached the second part of her boot sequence and she had to resist the urge to accelerate the loading of specific subroutines just so she could frown. Once the integrity of her basic systems was confirmed, she was supposed to run through a series of checks to confirm that her outsides were as perfect as her insides. Except they weren't. Her artificial gastrointestinal system: offline. The myriad of sensors that studded her body and the neural conduits that carried information from most of them to her processors: all but ten of the former were missing and all of the latter were. Her artificial follicles, living tissue skin sheath, and the systems that supported both: all gone. She had been stripped to her bare bones at some point and that was how whoever was reactivating her would first see her. Not the best introduction, she mused, given the way most beings reacted to her true visage.

The diagnostics confirming her lack of Model 715 subsystems finished, prompting her to either continue or terminate the boot sequence. After a moment's consideration, she opted to continue. Might as well see who was knocking on the door, figuratively speaking. After bringing her primary gyroscopes online and bypassing the secondary array for the time being - she needed to walk without falling to avoid embarrassing herself, but she probably wouldn't need to do any dancing anytime soon - she bypassed the final warnings about missing systems related to human mimicry and loaded the programs that would properly interpret the incoming signals from her various sensors and translate them into something her CPUs could process.

What started out as a multicolored blur quickly resolved itself into a coherent image as Cameron Connor's optics focused for the first time in… one hundred and sixty-five years, seven months, seven days, sixteen hours, forty-two minutes, and eighteen seconds, according to her internal systems. It took her only a fraction of a second to realize she was in a lab structurally similar to where she had worked for the Shadow Broker as he attempted to replicate terminators for some unknown reason, although she was mounted upright on a rack that slid small bars underneath each rib and under her widespread arms to keep her upright. Just as quickly, she began plotting her escape and evaluating methods of dealing with the organics she could sense in the room with her… and then she actually took a good look at the sources of the eight heartbeats and even breathing, and came to an abrupt halt.

First and foremost was an asari maiden - approximately one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty years old if the appearance analysis algorithms she'd created for herself were working correctly - in a white and blue outfit who stood directly in front of the rack Cameron was resting on. A septet of slightly younger asari were arrayed behind her; a team of asari commandos, judging by their weapons and trademark brown leather outfits. Interesting. The Shadow Broker's organization was made up primarily of krogans, salarians, turians, and quarians. There were a few asari but they were generally field agents. She'd never seen more than one visiting the base at any given time and given how the Broker tended to work, it was more likely that if he had any asari commandos in his employ, they would be six asari spread over six teams to exert his will, rather than a full, singular team.

How peculiar.

But it was her eighth visitor that really captured Cameron's attention. Testing first her arms and then her legs showed that she wasn't secured in any way and Cameron took a hesitant step forward, then another. After running a quick motor systems recalibration, she closed the distance between herself and what appeared to be a blonde human woman, hand coming up to rest on the woman's cheek as she began pulling in data through the sensors that remained on her fingertips. "Core temperature is ninety-eight point six degrees Fahrenheit, blood pressure is one hundred and ten over seventy, heart beating seventy-three times per minute. Biochemical signs and mannerisms suggest non-sexual excitement and apprehension. Interesting. Your biosigns are within acceptable drift of the last human I sampled - although I detect signs of cybernetic enhancement and the presence of an element with which I am not familiar - and you appear to be human. But humans have yet to leave Earth orbit except for nine trips to their sole moon." Stepping back, Cameron stared at the 'woman' consideringly. "I've been… asleep… long enough for that to have changed but even if humans are now space-faring, this base is very well hidden. Perhaps a new model of human infiltrator built by the Shadow Broker, using my own design as a base but improving upon it? Or a member of a shapeshifting race who gained access to my memory files and took on a form you thought I'd find comforting?"

The blonde let out a laugh, exchanging a look with the eldest - and presumably leader - of the asari. "Wow. It's like Calia slowed down to normal asari speed." Turning back to Cameron, she held out her hand. "Humans discovered mass effect tech in 2148, unlocked a mass relay hidden in the Sol system in 2149, had first contact with the Citadel in 2157, gained an embassy there in 2165, and were granted a seat on the Council in 2183. My name is Command Alexis Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance." A Spectre. Even more interesting. Two had been on the Shadow Broker's payroll when last she checked. The fact that a new one was a century and a half later wasn't surprising in the least, nor was the possibility of humans betraying their own kind. After all, she'd dealt with plenty of Grays in her day. The woman reached up with her free hand, patting the blue and white-clad asari on the shoulder. "Liara and I both had our issues with the Shadow Broker and so we teamed up to deal with him. She's going to take his place and turn the organization into… well, why she's taking over instead of me disbanding the entire group is a long story. But when she began examining his files, she found out about you and decided to introduce us."

"I see." Cameron stared at Alexis, pondering her situation. Obviously the human wanted something of her or else she never would have been reactivated. But what could Commander Alexis Shepard, Council Spectre, have for her of all people? Her knowledge of events and technology were long out of date and while she'd been one of Earth's most formidable combatants, she wasn't arrogant enough to think that she'd rank as highly when compared to all the citizens of the galaxy. Her eyes drifted down to the hand that Alexis was still offering and then back up to meet the woman's green eyes. "If was I was simply being repatriated to Earth or some other area of human control, there would be no need to activate and confront me here. Which means you want me for something. Since I can't come up with an adequate reason myself, I suppose I will only learn by asking… what do you want? And why should I come with you?"

Before Alexis could answer, the asari she'd identified as Liara stepped closer and brought a hand up to rest on the back of the blonde's neck. Without protesting, Alexis ducked her head slightly and let her eyes drift shut. Suddenly, Liara's eyes went from blue to pitch black and the rippling blue-white corona of biotic activity wrapped around them both. Melding. Cameron had read about it before but never seen it. Were the two lovers, then, that they thought so little of casually joining their minds? Good friends? Regular partners in raids like the one they'd conducted against the Shadow Broker, who used it as a method of exchanging intelligence? After only a few seconds, Liara exhaled and stepped away, her eyes returning to normal as the biotic nimbus around her body flickered and died. Surprisingly enough, Alexis's held on a few seconds longer before disappearing and Cameron filed the possibility of humans with biotic abilities away for future consideration. Then Alexis lazily opened her eyes, smirking as she met Cameron's gaze. And her response, while a phrase Cameron was quite familiar with, was the last thing she expected to hear.

"Come with me if you want to live."


End file.
